Inclined elevator



Sept. 19, 1933. H. A. w. WOOD 7,

INCLINED ELEVATOR Original Filed Dec. 23, 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Q Fri.

INVENTOR lienryA. ll ils'e Wood ATTOR N EY Sept. 19, 1933. H. A. w. WOODINCLINED ELEVATOR Original Filed Dec. 23, '1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR JYerqg/A. Wlpe 11 0 06 BY I TTCJRNEY Sept. 19, 1933. w, WOQD1,927,194

INCLINED ELEVATOR Original Filed Dec. 23. 1926 3 Sheecs-Sheet 5 I v "rATTORNEY Patented Sept. 19, 1933 warren STATES INCLINED ELEVATOR HenryA. Wise Wood, New York, N. Y., assignoi to Elizabeth Ogden Wood, John C.Distler,

and Henry A. Wise Wood, as trustees Original application December 23,1926, Serial No. 156,635, now Patent 1,768,650, dated July 1,- 1930.Divided and 25, 1928. Serial No- 9 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in inclined elevators andparticularly to elevators of the type which may be installed as anadjunct to a stairway in a dwelling house or other build- An object ofmy invention is to provide a substitute for the ordinary house liftwhich will be very simple and inexpensive in initial outlay and whichcan be operated at a very moderate cost.

Another object of my invention is to provide an elevator which can beapplied to existing buildings and which will occupy a part of the spacedevoted to the staircase. Ordinarily, the main staircase is wide enoughto permit of utilizing a portion thereof for a lift and my inclinedelevator may be laid over a part of the stairway or a portion of thestaircase may be cut away and my inclined lift installed therein.

Another object of my invention is to provide an inclined conveyor with aplatform carried thereby and angularly adjustable thereto. It will beunderstood that stairways differ somewhat in inclination and the angularadjustment permits of setting the platform to. a truly horizontalposition regardless of the inclination of the stairway. Y

Another object of myinvention is to provide a construction in which theplatform is hinged at its rear edge to the conveyor carriage so that ifthe platform should encounter an obstacle, when running downward, itwill merely swing up on its hinges and avoid crushing the object orbreaking any of the mechanism;

Another object of my invention is to provide safety devices forautomatically stopping the lift when an obstacle is encountered thereby,so as to prevent injury to persons or objects which might happen to bein the path of the traveling platform and also to provide means forautomatically stopping the lift when it reaches the top or the bottom ofthe stairway, together with hand control means for starting the lift ineither direction desired.

The present application is a division of my copending application,Serial No. 156,635, filed December 23, 1925 now Patent 1,768,650, and isdirected particularly to what I term a double chainway lift. In otherwords, while the specific claims in my copending application aredirected to an inclined elevator having a single guideway and a carriagesupported on a pair of wheels running in tandem in the guideway, andwith a single chain belt for propelling the carriage, my presentapplication is more specifically directed to an inclined elevatoremploying a pair of parthis application October 314,896

allel guideways with a carriage supported on Wheels running in saidguideways and with a chain belt for propelling the carriage in each ofthe guideways.

With the above named objects in view and others which will appearhereinafter, I shall now describe a specific embodimentof my invention,in connection with the accompanying drawings, and shall thereafter pointout the scope and novelty of my invention in the claims.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a staircase with my lift installedtherein, part of the floor at the foot of the stairs being broken awayfor purposes of illustration; 1

Fig. 2 is a view in vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view of cross section taken on the line of 33 of Fig. 2 andlooking down the stair- 'Fig. 4 is a View in section taken on the line44 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a side view of the conveyor carriage and platform showing ahand support carried by the carriage.

In the drawings I show a staircase comprising the customary stairstringers which are notched to support the stair treads 21 and risers 22Y The staircase shown is of the type which is bordered on one side by awall, while the opposite or outer side carries a balustrade 23. Nor-'mally three stringers are used to support the stairs but in the presentinstance the treads and risers extend from the outer stringer to thecenter stringer only, while the balance of the staircase between thecenter stringer and the wall is left open (or is cut away) to receive myimproved lift. The inner stringer 24, (Fig. 3) i. e., the one againstthe wall, is not notched, and secured to the adjacent face of the centerstair stringer 20, is a furring strip 26.

My improved lift comprises in general a pair of chainways, drivingmechanism for operating the chainways, and a platform carried by thechainways. Supported on the stringer 24 and on the furring strip 26,respectively, are two Z-beams 27, which extend the full length of thestairway, and project through an opening 28 cut into the floor 29 at thelower landing of the stairway. Supported on and secured to the lowerflange of each Z-beam is a channel beam 30 with the flanges of thelatterfacing inward toward the Z-beam, the two beams thus forming aconduit or casing for the chainway.

Traveling in each conduit is a truck comprising a body 31 in the form ofa vertical plate bearing a pair of studs 32, on which are mounted a pairof wheels 33. The wheels 33 are adapted to run on the lower flange ofthe channel beam 30 and as the flange is usually tapered in crosssection, the wheels 33 are preferably formed with rounded treadsurfaces. The wheels are of such diameter that they will just clear theupper flange of the channel while rolling along the lower flangethereof. The upper flange thus forms a guide to prevent fore-and-afttipping of the truck. Each plate 31 projects above the upper surface ofthe Z-beam and channel beam, and near the rear end thereof carries a pin34, on which is hinged a bracket 35. Secured to the brackets 35 is aplatform 37 which ties the two trucks together to form a carriage. Eachbracket 35 is formed with a shoulder 38 which normally rests upon anadjustable stop 39. The stop 39 may consist of a bolt screwed into thebracket 31 and locked at the desired adjustment by means of lock nuts.By this means the angle of the platform with respect to the trucks, maybe varied. As explained above, different stairways vary in steepness,and hence the necessity of the adjustable stops 39 to set the platformto a truly horizontal position.

To propel each truck along its conduit, I provide a chain belt 40, whichpasses around a pair of sprocket wheels 41, located respectively at theupper and lower ends of the conduit, the opposite ends of the chainbeing connected respectively to pins 42 carried by the truck. At aconvenient location adjacent the chainways I place driving mechanism fordriving the chains 40. Usually the space under a stairway is employedfor closet room and in this closet the driving mechanism may beconveniently installed, where it will be out of the way and not likelyto be tampered with.

The driving mechanism comprises an electric motor 44 which throughsuitable reduction gearing drives a shaft 51. The latter has securedthereto a pair of sprocket wheels 52, one for each chain 40. The lowerreach of each chain passes through an opening in the bottom of theconduit and about a pair of opposed idler sprocket wheels 53 and 54,journaled-in plates 55; thence the chain is looped about the drivingsprocket wheel 52. Thus, when the motor 44 is actuated, the sprocketwheels 52 will drive the chain 40 at a reduced speed by reason of thestep-down gearing between the motor and the shaft 51. In order to takeup slack in each chain individually, each sprocket wheel 53 is mountedon a shaft 56 which may be adjusted along a slot 5? in the plate 55. Theshaft may then be held in adjusted position by any suitable means.

The lower reach of each chain 40 rests on the floor of the chain-waycasing, i. e., on the lower flange of the Z-beam. An angle iron 59 (Fig.3) is secured to the faceof the Z-beam to provide a support for theupper reach of the chain and thus prevent clanking noises caused bywhipping of the chain as the lift is operated.

To close the space between the channel beams 3O, I provide a cover plate60 which extends across the entire upper face of the two chainways andis formed with a pair of slots 61, as shown in Fig. 1, just wide enoughfor the carriage plates 31 to passtherethrough. The plate 60 is held inplace by means of lag screws 62 which pass through the upper flanges ofthe Z-beams and into the numbers 24 and 26 respectively, therebysecuring the chainways to said members.

A hand rail 63 may be secured to the wall to provide support for aperson riding on the platform 37. If desired the hand rail 63 may bedispensed with and a post or hand support 64 substituted. This postwould then be secured to the carriage 31, as shown in Fig. 5.

The motor 44 may be started from either the lower or the upper landingof the staircase, by means of switches 90 and 90' respectively, topropel the platform either up or down the incline. As this lift is to beused in the household, special precautions have to be taken to preventinjury to the occupants of the building. If, for instance, the lift werecoming down, there might be danger of trapping a child or an objectunder the platform. For this reason the platform is hinged so that itwill swing up to vertical position in case any obstruction should lie inits path. The vertical position of the platform is shown in broken linesin Fig. 2. However, as a further precaution against accident, I providetrips at the forward and rear edges respectively, of the platform. Eachtrip is in the form of a bumper rail 65 supported on pins 66, which havesliding engagement with the platform, and

springs 67 serve to hold the rail spaced from the forward edge of theplatform. Each pin 66 constitutes an electric switch in the circuit ofthe motor, so that when the bumper is pressed inward by engagement withan obstacle, the circuit is broken and the motor is stopped. A similarspring-pressed bumper '72 is provided at the bottom of the platform nearthe forward edge thereof, and the bumper when pressed upward also breaksthe circuit of the motor and brings the conveyor to a stop.

It will be understood that various changes can be made in thearrangement and construction of my invention and I wish it would beunderstood that I consider myself at liberty to make such variations,alterations or modifications as fall within the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

I claim:

1. An elevator comprising a pair of inclined conduits, a carriage havingwheels running in said conduits, a conveyor belt in each conduit forpropelling the carriage along the conduits and a platform non-rigidlyconnected to the carriage whereby said platform will yield whenencountering an obstacle in its path.

2. An inclined elevator comprising a pair of laterally spaced conduits,each formed with a slot, a conveyor within each conduit and having I apart projecting through the slot, a platform exterior to the conduitsand hingedly connected to the projecting parts, and adjustable stopscarried by said parts for supporting the platform angularly with respectto said conduits, said platform being free to swing away from saidstops.

3. An inclined elevator comprising a pair of conduits each formed with aslot and interiorly with a track, wheels engaging each track, a carriageprojecting through each slot and sup- J ported by the wheels, a platformexterior to the conduits and hinged to the carriage, and a stop on eachcarriage against the platform normally rests. J

l. An inclined elevator comprising a pair of laterally spaced conduits,a cover plate connecting the conduits and having a pair of slots thereinproviding communication respectively with the interior of each conduit,a conveyor within each} conduit, a platform exterior to the conduits,

means projecting through each slot and connecting the platform with saidconveyors.

5. In combination a conduit formed with a slot and interiorly with atrack, wheels engaging the track, a carriage supported by the wheels andprojecting through the slot, a flexible draft member attached to thecarriage and means for supporting said member substantially throughoutthe length of said conduit.

6. In combinatioma conduit formed with a slot and interiorly with atrack, wheels engaging the track, a carriage supported by the wheels andprojecting through the slot, a pair of sprocket wheels mounted onhorizontal axes at opposite ends respectively of the conduit, a conveyorchain passed about and engaging said sprocket wheels and secured atopposite ends thereof to the carriage, and a shelf within the conduitfor supporting the upper reach of the chain.

7. In combination, a conduit formed with a slot and interiorly with atrack, wheels engag- 8. An inclined elevator comprising a pair ofconduits, a conveyor belt in each conduit, a carriage propelled by saidbelts, a driving means common to both of the belts, and means for takingup slack in each belt separately.

9. In combination with a stairway, an inclined conduit paralleling thestairway, a carriage, means for propelling the carriage along theconduit, a platform hinged on the carriage and overlying the conduit,and a hand post secured to the carriage.

HENRY A. WISE WOOD.

